


Baseline

by kres



Series: Series Four Daisy (Chain) [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 04:28:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9418763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kres/pseuds/kres
Summary: This is his natural state.





	

Naturally, that wasn't a therapy session. Didn't you recognize it?

Bring up his lack of sleep. He will deny it, so catch him in a lie. Bring up his orphaned daughter, twist the words into lewdness, and make him ashamed. Smooth out his guilt with platitudes. A very palpable hit. Now comes anger.

This is his baseline. His natural state.

Next, assess his attitude towards her brothers. Sherlock, first, and oh, how that hurts, how brightly it hurts, and how blinding--

(She would have asked about Mycroft, but they were interrupted, and wasn't that grand?)

Next, place herself within the action. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, in the midst of a case. Sherlock, predicting the movements of all his pawns (yes, you are one too, Mycroft, didn't you know?), and John, incandescent with grief, and blind to everything and everyone except Sherlock.

John so very much wants to believe him. So, so much. It's oddly beautiful to watch, because John balances at the edge of the dam so precisely, barely dipping his feet. A true skill.

And Sherlock-- still has no idea. He is working (by the sweat of his brow), constructing a scaffolding to trap John, to solve a case, and to attain redemption, all under a self-administered handicap (means are a choice; was it best available on short notice or merely the best?), and still he is working oblivious to the real reason he exerts himself so.

She marvels. Like a binary star with a decaying orbit. She can take them so, so very far...

Next, she really needs to see them with Mycroft.


End file.
